The Boingo Scam

I used your internet service in the Memphis International Airport and paid 3.95 for service. Your company forced me to download software (I've been told their is some hidden opt out somewhere) and then most likely snuck in some clause apparently about saying they can charge you again for service. Then at the Hotel Erzsebet in Budapest you charged me 9.95 even though I did not use your service or know that I was connected through your network. I have no doubt that you have snuck different clauses into the fine print which at least give some prima facie appearance of legality, but the fact is that this system is built to trap and trick busy travelers who are too busy to figure out what your scam is. I demand that you refund my 9.95 charge that was made to my credit card without my knowledge or permission. If you do not comply I will take the following action.

1) Report your scam to every possible online forum.
2) Report your company to the Internet Fraud Complaint Center.
3) Report your company to the Better Business Bureau.
4) Notify my credit card company that I did not approve this transaction and was not notified at the point of sale that my credit card would be charged.
4) Contact the hotel where I stayed and the airport which provided your service.

If you do not refund my credit card within 7 days I will take these actions, I will also research the applicable law and consider reporting you to other legal authorities.

I was pissed too, they did the same thing to me and refused to refundthe extra charges. I live in FL, but "Bogus" Boingo Wireless is basedin South Santa Monica, California. I wrote the attorney general thereand asked him to investigate Boingo business practices. I've alsofiled a complaint with the FL state attorney and the CA BetterBusiness Bureau. That's not all, I am on a mission. I boughtwww.ihateboingo.com I am currently working on the website. Boingoneeds to be exposed, they are conducting the same business practicesthat Blockbuster had attempted and looked where it took Blockbuster.If you do a search online, you'll see people complaining aboutfraudulent charges from all over the world. They'll give you accessalright as long as you give them unlimited access to your bankaccount. Here is my story:
I was on vacation flying from ATL (Atlanta) to CDG (France). Since Iwas going to arrive to France late, I needed to contact my hotel andthe car rental agency to let them know that I would arrive late.Unfortunately I had no way to call, my only option was through theInternet. When I fired up my browser, one of the option was Boingo =Bogus. I thought I sign up for just a month – a month later I wascharged for another month. When I called to cancel the service, I wason hold for almost half hour. When I finally reached someone fromcustomer service, she was very unhappy with me because I was cancelingthe service. The last monthly charge was on 6/15/09. I had sent anemail to them instructing them to cancel the account and refund the$9.95. I got an email back saying please call customer service tocancel. To make a long story short customer service failed to refundme the $9.95 even though I have only used their service once. Boingojust made the biggest mistake because I will let the world know howsucks their service is. I enjoy demolishing greedy companies likeBoingo. I was a big advocate when Blockbuster decided to sell moviesto customers if they didn’t return them without making customers awareof the charge beforehand – that has resultedhttp://www.blockbustervictims.com . I predict that Boingo will go outof business pretty soon if they continue on this path. The serviceitself is a mith, they are doing the same greedy things that severalcompanies have tried and continue to do until someone like Math andothers say enough is enough. It’s good that they monitor blogs, but Idon’t think they’ll be able to keep up – soon the internet will beflooded with hating Boingo Wireless website and I’ll be the first oneto put one up and report them. Bogus Boingo, you are in for a fight –see you on ihateboingo.com and how about Bogusboingo.com GREED MYFRIEND, IT WILL TAKE YOU NOWHERE!

If this (and what many other things I've read are true)
What you really should do is contact law enforcement (eg State'sAttorney) to seek criminal prosecution with jail-time for fraud, plusseek a large cash settlement from a class action lawsuit.

those who commit fraud should be afraid to victimize consumers. Thatmay sound harsh for what some might call "creative billing" or"opportunistic negotiation" but it is crime, and they who do thesethings are willing to disregard the consequences to thousands ormore.

People who commit fraud will not hesitate committing fraud unless theyare sure that just one of their victims can take them down and causethem to loose more than all their ill gotten gains. will not be unableto do it, unless they are not allowed to be in positions of trust andopportunity, and will not stop voluntarily without a miraculousrepentant conversion...there'd have to be a reason for that.

as times get tougher, we're going to see more and more mischief inbusiness.

I called my credit card company and explained exactly what happenedand they removed the charge from my credit card. Its not the moneythough, its the principle. I did know that if I connected to theBoingo service that I would be charged, the point is though that I didnot intend to connect. They need a confirmation screen to tell you howmuch it costs and if you want to connect.

You appear to have signed up for the Boingo AsYouGo plan -- whichmeans that whe you use the service you get billed for $7.95 a day inthe US and $9.95 a day elsewhere.

It is possible to get to the download page without going through thepage where you pick your plan. I'm not willing to actually downloadthe software to see how clearly they indicate the fact that this is anongoing plan rather than a one-time connection, but even at thatdownload page I run into a clear explanation of what I have to do toterminate my agreement with Boingo via the End User License Agreement. Nowhere else on their fight can I find anything indicating thatthey're selling one-time access, even though it appears that you cansign up for the AsYouGo plan and then cancel once you're done with theone-time use. On the other hand, I can't find a $3.95 offer either,so I assume I'm not seeing what you saw. They do indicate that whenyou hit one of their hotspots you will get a prompt asking you whetheryou want to connect -- it doesn't connect automatically -- although Idon't know what that prompt looks like.

I guess what I'm saying is that it appears that you entered into adeal without paying attention to all the details -- and one of thedetails was that you were agreeing to exactly what happened inBudapest. You didn't uninstall and get rid of the software after youused it in Memphis. If you were to describe exactly what you saw atvarious steps, and what led you to think you were paying for one-timeuse, I might find that sufficient to conclude that in fact Boingo wasso vague about what you were agreeing to that it ought to refund theBudapest fee. But without that extra detail, it looks to me as if youdidn't pay enough attention and they were within their rights tocharge me.